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U of M may bar booze at all campus sporting events

This fall's eagerly awaited return of
University of Minnesota football to a campus stadium will feature
nostalgia, pageantry and fresh air. But no beer.

University President Robert Bruininks will recommend Friday that
regents ban alcohol from the new stadium after state lawmakers
demanded that fans in the TCF Bank Stadium cheap seats get as much
access to booze as those in the suites.

He is extending the no-alcohol policy to the hockey team's
Mariucci Arena and the basketball team's Williams Arena. While
alcohol isn't broadly sold in either, it has been available in
suite and reception areas.

"We know people will drink before they get to our games. We're
not naive," Bruininks told The Associated Press in an interview
Thursday. "But we do think this is the best, most responsible way
to manage our game days and to really make this a high-quality
experience for our fans."

“This is an educational institution and it's not a professional sports venue.”

U of M President Robert Bruininks

Lawmakers and Gov. Tim Pawlenty hemmed the university in by
attaching conditions to a liquor license for the football stadium.
They said the school could sell alcohol stadium-wide or not at all.
They also blocked the university from serving free alcohol to fans
in premium seating areas, such as luxury boxes and club rooms.

University officials opposed the conditions, saying stadium-wide
sales would be out-of-step with on-campus stadiums in the Big Ten
and send the wrong message to students about drinking. Lawmakers
argued that limiting booze to people holding expensive tickets
smacked of elitism.

The Gophers campus homecoming comes after 27 football seasons in
the Metrodome.

The old campus stadium was torn down after the school shifted
games to downtown Minneapolis in 1982. The novelty of the
climate-controlled Metrodome wore off fast. Average attendance
steadily slipped and fans began clamoring for a new home. Three
years ago, state lawmakers authorized the $288 million, horseshoe
shaped stadium with room for 50,000 fans.

The decision to go dry will be a change from collegiate games in
the Dome, where fans could buy beer no matter where they sat.

"Bringing football back to the campus changes everything," Bruininks said. "This is an educational institution and it's not a
professional sports venue. The change in venue here was critically
important."

The decision could come at a price. Although the university's
original plan would have made booze available to only 5 percent of
stadium ticketholders, the offering made those pricier seats more
attractive.

Online promotional materials for premium seating in the new
stadium highlighted extra amenities. Selling points for the
20,000-square foot DQ Club Room, for instance, are the "expansive
lounge area with private bar and concessions" and an "expanded
food and beverage menu."

Bruininks said the school plans to contact people and companies
that already purchased premium seats and could offer them different
incentives.

Minnesota officials said there are few campus football stadiums
at large colleges where alcohol is available throughout the
building. Syracuse University and the University of Cincinnati are
among them.

Democratic Sen. Linda Scheid of Brooklyn Park disagrees with the
university's decision. She said it could drive drinking underground
and cause people to binge drink before coming to games.

"I assume people will bring flasks with them or they'll do
something else if they're intent on drinking," said Scheid,
chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees liquor
licenses. "When you suppress it, it's an artificial suppression.
If people are going to abuse alcohol, they are going to do it."

William DeJong, a Boston University professor who studies
college drinking, said the move by itself won't prevent alcohol
smuggling but the school's new policy should reduce consumption.

"The general rule of thumb in dealing with alcohol is if you
make things less convenient, if you make it harder for people to
make bad decisions than fewer will make bad decisions," DeJong
said. "It seems like a bizarre argument to me to allow sales in
every part of the stadium because people just might bring it in
anyway."

DeJong said other colleges have imposed random breath tests or
other screening at the gate to discourage drinking before games.

By the time the Gophers host their first game Sept. 12,
Bruininks said the university will have settled on a plan for
keeping intoxicated people from entering the stadium and removing
unruly fans who do get in.

Bruininks doesn't expect the Board of Regents to formally act on
his alcohol-policy recommendation until June 24.